If you have ever wondered whether we are living in a Black Mirror episode, this will ascertain your doubts. Palmer Luckey, the developer of the virtual reality headset, Oculus has designed a headset where users can be killed in real life if they die in the game.
Taking to Twitter, the developer announces his feat with the message, "This might be a game but it is not something you play." The defense contractor also wrote in a blog post detailing the fatal design, “The idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me — you instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players inside it."
The deathly device is fashioned on an anime series called Sword Art Online where characters, trapped by an eccentric scientist, suffer microwave-induced brain melt through their headsets - if they fail to escape. The device developed by Luckey follows a similar process, with the ability to blow up the player's head with the headset's charge modules.
To no one's surprise, netizens were appalled at this discovery, with many debating about the ethics in VR. A Twitter user commented under Luckey's post with, "You need to be behind bars forever" while another wrote, "This is legitimately terrifying."
Twitter users found creative ways to react to this tech-addled nightmare. Here are some more reactions to the deathly device:
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